Feds should renew commitment to Prime Hook

When the federal government acquired farms and marshland in the early 1960s to create Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, it recognized the important role this unique combination of fresh and saltwater marshes played in the health of the migratory birds using the Atlantic Flyway.

If the federal Fish and Wildlife Service would recommit itself to the preservation responsibility it took on when it created the refuge, the flooding problems confronting the community of Primehook Beach and the rapidly deteriorating marshes which were once a rich feeding ground for ducks and geese in the flyway could be quickly reversed.

With a renewed commitment to filling dune breaches when they are small and affordable instead of waiting until they become large and expensive, the Fish and Wildlife Service in concert with state agencies that have sand-moving equipment could start the process of restoring the health of Prime Hook’s precious system.

Yes, there’s sea-level rise, but that doesn’t mean we just roll over. Fill the breaches and then start making more effective use of the water-control structures installed in the refuge several years back and nature will do the rest in terms of healing the marshes.

What will happen? Here’s a statement from the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife waterfowl survey scientists in a report in the early 2000s.  Those observers noted “recent increases in ducks using the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge area after the Refuge accomplished phragmites and water control.”

Primehook Beach would also gain greater protection because of less stress on its backing marshes and its main access road. So, now that federal agencies waited so long to act on filling the dune breaches, and available sand has been swept away, where’s the new sand to come from?

With property and lives threatened - as everyone knew they would be - is it too much to ask that someone explore whether equipment being used to fill beaches at Lewes and Rehoboth be deployed a few extra days up the bay shore a couple of miles? When will common sense prevail and the federal government step back up to its responsibility instead of a whole lot more hand wringing, studies, expensive consultants and inaction?

The gridlock in Washington, D.C. is obviously contagious.